Sonya Dyakova

My mother with my brother two years before I was born. This image could be straight out of a Tarkovsky film — extremely still and full of movement all at the same time. The landscape and the river in the background remind me of a Renaissance painting. The area is called Izdrevaya, the countryside outside of Novosibirsk, Siberia. This is where we grew up and rented a summer house in the forest. It is lush and calm. Rolling hills, a winding river. Classic Russian landscape. Very flat. Pine forests and birch trees, too.